In a cellular communication network there will always be areas with high amount of traffic, i.e. high concentration of users. In those areas it would be desirable to deploy additional capacity to keep user satisfaction. The added capacity could be provided by adding a base station, e.g. a macro base station, or by deploying access nodes within the coverage area of the existing base station in order to concentrate a capacity boost to a smaller area, in which the capacity is needed. Such access nodes have lower output power and thus cover a smaller area.
Within the cellular communication network, there will typically also be areas with bad coverage for which there is a need for coverage extension, and again, one way to accomplish this is to deploy an access node with low output power to concentrate the coverage boost to a small area.
One argument for choosing access nodes with low output power in the above cases is that the impact on the existing cellular communication network, e.g. the existing macro base station and its coverage area, can be minimized. It is, for example, a smaller area wherein the macro base station may experience interference.
There are various different terms used for the type of network deployments described above, such as Heterogeneous networks (HetNets) and multilayer networks. These low power access nodes could for example comprise pico, micro or femto base stations, and their respective names mainly indicate their output power and thus coverage area.
Today there are typically a few centralized gateways in the cellular communication network that provide end users with access to Internet. With an expected high increase in data traffic and high speed thereof, capacity issues may arise in these centralized gateways. The centralized high capacity gateways are expensive and to include more such centralized gateways is therefore costly. Further, transport networks needed for delivering the data traffic to the base stations for further delivery to end users may also encounter capacity difficulties. However, investments to upgrade infrastructure, such as the transport networks, are high. Further still, end users expect a high performance and the use of centralized gateways may lead to a decrease in the performance e.g. due to increased delay. The risk of increased delay is particularly pertinent in view of the rapidly increasing amount of data traffic.
One alternative is to localize the access to Internet, for example using local IP access (LIPA). To localize access to Internet in an existing network structure may be challenging. It is a desire that an access node, e.g. a low power node in a HetNet, is physically small. It is a further desire to keep the complexity of the access node low. Further, when a high number of access nodes is expected, the deployment and related configurations, with regard to the localized access to Internet, need to be simple in order to reduce installation costs.